The star announced a year ago that he was "taking a break... to travel the world and see everything I missed", but promised fans he would be back with his third album, which he called "the best thing I have made so far".

He also announced he would disappear from "my phone, emails and all social media for a while", saying he had started to "see the world... through a screen and not my eyes".

The Thinking Out Loud singer recently returned to social media, with a light blue picture posted on his Instagram and Twitter profiles, prompting speculation that new music was on the way.

Sheeran gave his first official return performance in a charity gig at the Natural History Museum at the end of November, days after it was reported that Princess Beatrice had accidentally cut him on the face when a party prank went wrong as she was pretending to "knight" singer James Blunt with a ceremonial sword.

Showing off a scar on his cheek, Sheeran told the audience: "It's nice to be back. I've had a whole year off. I went to Japan for about a month and hung out with Japanese people. Got my face cut open, anyone read about that?"